I think it would work and help. I'd also like to see Carrera countertops or white quartzite instead of that speckle-y granite, but maybe that's not in the budget.

A lot of Europeans put modern cabinets like this in very old homes, so you will be fine.

Honed marble tile floor? Yummy. My first thought was black and white marmoleum tiles, maybe 13" sq. just a thought if the marble doesn't work.

Thanks all! So no real objections to marble floors, good. I would like to change out the counter tops they are not beautiful lol, but that may have to wait another year, I thought either white granite types or soapstone. I like marmoleum but I think this neighborhood expects 'real' material. Tried to talk my sister into it in her MCM house. I got the idea about the mix because half of our family lives in Europe. I just did not want to create a faux look here. Period sensitive is a dirt floor an hearth in the basement, or actually 3 hearths lol. I keep all that is good in the house, try to restore what is damaged and make it nice, but I still want to live in the 21st century. We have interior plumbing, AC and central heat.

I live in a period 19th c house, too. (have interior plumbing but not central heat or AC). Have the dirt floor, too, though luckily not in my kitchen.

I think marble flooring would be nice, though be wary of anything that tries too hard to imitate an old Italian palazzo floor.

You're snazzy Italian kitchen might look lovely in an old palazzo as well as in your 200 year old American building. But don't let the palazzo look creep into the American building just because they'd both go with the Italian job.

It's pretty safe to say that virtually no one until very recently put marble tiles in any American kitchen. It would have been wood (after tamped earth fell out of favor) right up until real lino took over in the late 19th c. Well, I suppose if your house is in New Mexico or CA, it might have had red tile floors after the rammed earth stage. But marble for the kitchen? Not likely, because the people who could have afforded marble weren't likely to feel the need to dress up the room where the domestics workers worked. They might have had marble in the foyer, the bath, on the stairs, etc. but not in the kitchen.

But if you can find a nice balance with the marble, why not go whole hog and put radiant heatng under the marble? So cozy, very economical heating and your pets will love it. I had a house with it, and it was the nuts. Unfortunately my 1.25 inch thick old growth pine floors aren't really appropriate for it.

Agree that I'd want to ditch the speckles when you get a chance. Too shiny, too 2008-ish.

HTH

L.

I'm thinking a large hex mosaic in the carrera marble would look great. How great to find a kitchen like that! I'm jealous!

I think this will look amazing when you get it all together in a new/old space. I'm curious though, since I haunt this site as well as GW - did you find the kitchen via Green Demolitions? (The photo resembles the ones on their website.) If so, I'd love to know what your experience was like. I'm not sure I'd ever find something that I could work with in my screwed-up space, but I find myself every other week or so coming upon an amazing kitchen on their website and wondering if I could make it work!

Yes I got it through Green demolitions, I have haunted the site daily lol. The space is rather awkward in size so finding something that fit was difficult to start out with. the delivery is today so I will let you know how the experience is. There is a three day return policy on appliances that do not work.
And liliodendron I am being careful to not have the Palazzo style. Although considering it is Federal house and the original owners liked that style, it might not be inappropriate. I am just teasing. But as you point out the kitchen was not anything I would ever want to work in. I have three hearths on a dirt floor in the basement. I think that is why I am not trying to make it look like it "fits". A nice kitchen does not really fit. I want materials that correspond to the style of the house and to return original woodwork to the spaces where it has been remuddled, but I don't want to hide the kitchen or put it back in the basement. I am attaching a photo I took of the marble that is already there to give an idea. I would have the heart pine floors in the area if they had not already been torn out. Luckily, we have three rooms and a hall that still have them.